MBTI: Where to Live Based on your Personality

We all know that your personality helps define a lot about you, such as who you hang out with, what type of work you’re suited for, and the way you generally function in everyday life. But did you know it can also help you determine the most suitable places for you to live in the world?

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a questionnaire you can take to determine your own psychological aspects – are you introverted or extroverted? Are you very organized or do you just “go with the flow”? The MBTI promises to reveal many traits you may have learned from you upbringing or the people you surround yourself with. You can find the test online, but usually it must be paid for, so we’ll trust your Google skills to find out more.

The MBTI test will give you 4 letters which will sum up your personality and are grouped accordingly.

E and I stand for Extrovert and Introvert, revealing if you get your energy from being with people or from spending time alone.

S and N stand for sensing and intuition, showing your interest in the tangible reality of the situation or the impression of the situation.

T and F stand Thinking and Feeling, showing whether you prefer to take action under deliberation or choose to react more on your personal values.

J and P stand for Judging and Perceiving, indicating a divide in if you prefer to keep things organized or let things happen.

Thus, an ENTP person would be someone who gains energy by being with others while maintaining a feeling of abstract feeling with clear objectives, all the while keeping their personal options open for what may come their way.

By using this and a little background information about locations in the world, one can determine pretty quickly where they may “fit-in.” An article by Thought Catalog sums up some of the possible placements nicely, noting that more introverted and organized people may like Northern Europe, where people maintain order and prefer a reserved approach to situations in life.

A person more interested in city life and hustle-and-bustle of a place that never sleeps will often tend to be more extroverted and able to adapt to quick-change. Beijing would be a prime example for an ENTP personality.

What’s interesting about this approach is that, depending on the country, you can have multiple personality types existing by area. People in Washington state in the USA tend to be more introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging – but the farther South you go this personality can shift dramatically to the opposite, being extroverted and more involved with feelings.

Of course, this isn’t a “hard and fast” rule – you can have very different MBTI personalities living in the same city. Cities such as New York are so diverse you’ll find people of all types creating their home and community around them. Based off of what you know about the different countries of the world, using a general rule of thumb, where do you think you’d best fit in? Where do you think you would have a more difficult time?